How about a sample-mellotronizer?

[emdot_ambient]

BTW can anyone suggest some mellotron solo parts to check?
except Strawberry Fields intro!

Hmm...not without the Mellotron being used with some extreme FX . . .

Tangerine Dream's Phaedra has a piece called Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares that is largely Mellotron strings...not sure how much FX there are on that.

You might take a look at http://www.planetmellotron.com/ to see albums with Mellotron. Maybe you have some of these and can find solos in them...

[Bruce Bartlett]

Edgar Froese's Epsilon In Malaysian Pale* is almost entirely Mellotron.

* the original version on Virgin or Brain, not the recent remix.

[emdot_ambient]

Edgar Froese's Epsilon In Malaysian Pale* is almost entirely Mellotron.
* the original version on Virgin or Brain, not the recent remix.

True, but it's also heavily processed with filter and phase and delay and reverb and . . .

As I found out when trying to re-create the sound of that recording using the M-Tron: Epsilon In New Orleans Pale

[CS80]

King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King
Starless and Bible Black

[liqih]

thanks!,
listening to "Watcher of the Skies" intro from a live recording, it seems that the mellotron there can have different attack transients, soft, hard and very hard, not sure if that's related to the way the keys are pushed or the time of the tapes or even the gain of the chords as more notes = more volume = more saturation = more harmonics

[alogie]

Mike Pinder the ex-keyboard player of The Moody Blues has a forum dedicated to the 'tron on his website. I didn't read many posts, but you might find some info on playing technique in there somewhere.
http://www.mikepinder.com/phpBB2/index.php

[alogie]

This site has a ton of tron soundclips:
http://egrefin.free.fr/eng/mellotron/melsounds.php

[liqih]

many thank alogie, those sites rule!

[Muzik 4 Machines]

BTW can anyone suggest some mellotron solo parts to check?
except Strawberry Fields intro!

"Watcher of the Skies" by Genesis.

yeah but it's a special made tape for tony banks ( i think either mtron vol 3 or the squids ones had it)

add to that the Wakeman solo in yes songs where he does teh aleluya on it
almost all genesis(the real old, peter era) strings part are the mellotron strings
moody blues used it a lot too

[taijiguy]

The 8 second length on Mellotrons is something of a misnomer. True, the tapes for each note were about 8 seconds long, but let's say you press a note on a real Mellotron, and hold it for 6 seconds, then you let go . . . what happens is the tape then starts to rewind. If you press the note again before the tape has rewound completely, you will then: 1) start playing the sound in the middle of the sustain portion without the attack, and 2) you'll have far less than 8 seconds of hold left over.

These are good points. Hence, the development of the "spider" technique of playing to give the tapes time to rewind.

I have no clue how fast Mellotrons rewind their tapes, but if you've held a cord, and then start playing a 1/16th note staccato arpeggio . . . the tape's not going to go all the way back, and in-between each note you play it will rewind a little bit.

All models rewind in well under a second. A well-maintained Tron should rewind within half a second. Knowledgeable Mellotronists adjust their playing using the spider technique to give the tapes time to rewind completely.

[taijiguy]

2) tube+tape saturation and band limiting

The MkI/II (except for Mike Pinder's MkII's), M300 and current MkVI and MkVII Trons use tubes. All other models are solid state.

[taijiguy]

Oh, one more point after looking at the "How it works" link:

The head-block, in front of the capstan holds the 35 tape heads (one for each note) that reproduce the sound. This block can move left or right and is used to select one of three sounds recorded on each tape.

I have read that some users would somehow move the tapes only half-way, so they'd get a blend of two different sounds . . . but that this was risky and could cause tape jams.

Only the M400/MkV/MkVI/MkVII/M4000 headblocks can be adjusted anywhere between the tracks. The MkI/MkII/M300 models can select 2 adjacent tracks equally. The SFX can't mix adjacent tracks, but it can split the keyboards between tracks. It's perfectly safe to mix tracks. I do it all the time and have never had a problem. I also don't know anyone else who has had problems.

[taijiguy]

BTW can anyone suggest some mellotron solo parts to check?
except Strawberry Fields intro!

"Watcher of the Skies" by Genesis.

yeah but it's a special made tape for tony banks ( i think either mtron vol 3 or the squids ones had it)

It isn't a special tape. Watchers was recorded with a MkII. The right keyboard was a mix of MkII 3 Violins/MkII Combined Brass, which just happen to be adjacent to each other. The left keyboard was Accordian Bass Notes. M-Tron has that combo. Add a little reverb and it sounds very convincing.

[emdot_ambient]

All models rewind in well under a second. A well-maintained Tron should rewind within half a second.

Cool, I've never heard any discussion on it. Man, that must put on heck of a strain on the tapes! Looking at a mechanism diagram and thinking of 6' of tape zapping back in less than half a second sounds like the tape would stretch pretty quickly. Amazing these things still exist.

[Meffy]

What astonishes me the most is that the spill doesn't tangle every time a note is released.